Govt mobilises 24 medical teams to treat Rohingyas

The government has mobilised 24 medical teams to treat Rpohingyas as public health facilities appeared inadequate in southeastern region bordering Myanmar with continued surges of refugees, officials said on Monday."We have so far sent 24 mobile medical teams for them . . . 21 of them are in Cox's Bazar and the three others are operating in Bandarban as part of Health Ministry initiatives for the hapless Rohingyas," Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammad Nasim told BSS.Nasim said in line with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's directives the health ministry decided to provide the maximum possible medical services to the refugees "within our limited resources considering it a humanitarian issue".Officials familiar with the process said the mobile teams were constituted as public hospitals at Cox's Bazar, Ukhia and Bandarban were to struggling to attend the onrush of refugees exhausting their limited capacities to treat severe injuries alongside other diseases."They (hospitals) in the area are attending more than the double the patients compared to the normal time as the refugee influx began," director general of Health Services Professor Dr Abul Kalam Azar told BSS.The health service chief on Monday reached Cox's Bazar to hold meetings with international aid agencies to take a coordinated approach to extend humanitarian services to displaced Myanmar nationals."Our (Health Ministry) team will have an emergency meeting with different stakeholders at the scene including the UN and other international organizations on expanding more facilities to the people," Azad told BSS by phone. He said under the ministry initiatives the Rohingyas were being administered 'measles-mumps-rubella (MMR)' and 'trivalent oral poliovirus (OPV)' vaccine and vitamin A capsules to their minor children."Primarily they are suffering by diarrhoea, acute respiratory throat infection, pneumonia, chronic skin disease called 'psoriasis' and fever mostly due to intake of contaminated food and water," the health services chief said. Azad said special arrangements would be made for pregnant women and the people who have high blood pressure, diabetes and other long term diseases. According to the Foreign Ministry, at least 300,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh in the past 15 days while 4,000 of them earlier fled to Bangladesh to evade persecution since 1991.